It’s official: We are an interstellar species

Is the title of the article.

In recent months it has appeared likely that Voyager 1, a probe launched in 1977, has gone beyond our solar system but now it’s official: the spacecraft has left the building. This makes it the first human-made object to move beyond the Sun, its planets and its heliosphere, a region of space dominated by the Sun and its wind of energetic particles.

The findings are to be published in Geophysical Research Letters (see abstract).

In their article the authors write:

“It appears that [Voyager 1] has exited the main solar modulation region, revealing [hydrogen] and [helium] spectra characteristic of those to be expected in the local interstellar medium.”

Voyager 1 was launched September 5th 1977, 35 years, 6 months, and 15 days ago as of 20 March 2013.

It has a top speed of 38,610 mph (62,136 km/h).

To give us some idea of just how big our solar system, let alone "outer space" is and the mindbogglingly vast distances and time that are involved in interstellar travel as "we" know it.

Source

NASA don't agree. www.jpl.nasa.gov...

I don't agree either. The Oort cloud is part of the Solar System (having formed out of the same basic material, and being under the Sun's gravitational inflience), and it will be many thousands of years before the Voyager reaches it.
solarsystem.nasa.gov...

In the same article...

wait a minute

“The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system,” said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. “It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space, and that change of direction has not yet been observed.”

Bon Voyage, VGER...

reply to post by wildespace


Indeed, considering the Oort Cloud is a light year away from the sun, if I recall correctly.

But wow, 14,000 to 28,000 years... that's a long time!

Originally posted by Shdak
In the same article...

wait a minute

“The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system,” said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. “It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space, and that change of direction has not yet been observed.”

I was just getting ready to point that out.

Glad i checked other posts first lol

Thanks for the update OP. I've been so caught up in terrestrial matters, I'd have missed this entirely and been real upset for that. I've been waiting for this. Finally.. They made it out of the sphere, eh? Well.. There we are. Finally outside our little corner of the Universe, even if only by a hair.

Some news is good, some is bad ...and some is just warm and inspirational. Thanks again.

Well....I guess maybe we are a race of "interstellar" criminals and this is a penal colony....we don't get contact, disclosure or proof because our jailors don't think we deserve it or are ready for it....

I have no quarrel with the idea that the Universe is probably teeming with life. The idea that we have some fantastic trait that would draw them here is absolute arrogance. There is absolutely nothing here that cannot be found all over the Universe...water, Oxygen, gold, uranium, etc. "If" we are part of a "galactic" community...then we have been isolated for a reason....maybe because we have no quarrel killing another human for 5 dollars or a bottle of wine....think hard about that.

reply to post by Jeremiah65


It is theorized that this world is a prison planet for all the criminals and artists from the interstellar community that sent them here. This would explain humanity's high rate of artistry and violence.

Weird, but cool.

Originally posted by EllaMarina
reply to post by Jeremiah65

 

It is theorized that this world is a prison planet for all the criminals and artists from the interstellar community that sent them here. This would explain humanity's high rate of artistry and violence.

Weird, but cool.

The modern world could explain it with nothing else supporting the claim

as one commentator put it on the "source" site...if i put a note into a bottle and threw it into the ocean and it reached africa, that wouldn't mean i had gone to africa...hence, we are not an intersteller species. our species has not left earth beyond orbit, let alone our solar system

reply to post by Bybyots
Way to lighten the mood. Thanks!

Doppleganger points to V'GER!!!

reply to post by Shdak
Doh!

That was not there earlier when I posted, hence update and the use of the words 'is aware of reports today'.

Oh well. That sucker is out there pretty far.

reply to post by ElleLachyme


Well NASA certainly aren't confirming that

news.sky.com...

Originally posted by jimmyx
as one commentator put it on the "source" site...if i put a note into a bottle and threw it into the ocean and it reached africa, that wouldn't mean i had gone to africa...hence, we are not an intersteller species. our species has not left earth beyond orbit, let alone our solar system

I was going to point that out.

Our species has only gone as far as the moon.

Hardly interstellar.

You guys suck and are too caught up in this stuff, while I too know that things are out there, more likely 'in' here. I find myself proud as a human to to send our neanderthal hunk of metal out there.

Especially in 1977 and find it amazing that thing still communicates. I have electronics three years old that are dead.

God Speed V'EGR.

Lighten up prisoners of your own, or others minds.

Not to be a downer, but NASA officially said that we have not yet left the solar system soon after these reports starting coming up on the internets.

NASA JPL on Voyager 1

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space."

reply to post by ElleLachyme


It IS the the farthest traveled object the earth has ever produced. Thanks for sharing.



(But yeah, on a technicality, it'd have to reach another star system to qualify for the interstellar label.)